Why Do Birds

CHAPTER 14

After the opening statements, which consumed an hour and a half, the first questioner was Senator Arbuthnot.

"Mr. Stone, I understand that you have spoken to these alien creatures, and so on, but I'm not quite clear in my mind what it was all about. Now I wonder if you could just tell me, what was the aliens' purpose in coming here?"

"I don't know. I guess just exploring, and, you know, collecting specimens. They showed me all kinds of stuff they picked up, plants, trees. They had an elephant, but I think they were going to take it apart."

"They were? Why would they do that?"

"For parts, I guess."

Senator Arbuthnot blinked. "Mr. Stone, let me ask you this. Why don't these aliens show themselves? Why don't they come down here and meet with our elected leaders? Doesn't the fact that they haven't done that suggest to you that they have something to hide?"

"I guess they can't stand the gravity, and maybe they're shy. They're little aliens, and they're not very strong."

Senator Arbuthnot scribed a note. "What exactly did they tell you about the world coming to an end?"

"They didn't really tell me, they showed me pictures. It looked like, the aliens come down and pick up the box, and then the Earth goes all dark. "

"And this is supposed to happen twelve years from now?"

"I think that's right, Senator."

"Do you realize, Mr. Stone, that if we took this seriously, government would grind to a halt? We wouldn't be able to make any commitments more than twelve years ahead, we wouldn't be able to sell Treasury bonds, every program would have to be scaled back. That would be a catastrophe for government, wouldn't it?"

"I guess it would, Senator. "

"You guess it would. Mr. Stone, is the alien spaceship out there right now?"

"I guess so."

"Why haven't our astronomers seen it?"

"Maybe they haven't been looking in the right place."

"That's possible. Where should they look?"

"I don't know. "

During the lunch break, four of Stone's supporters sat together at a comer table in the Senate Dining Room.

"One thing that does seem to provide some corroboration," said Senator Whelk, "the Hubble Telescope stopped transmitting in two thousand, you remember that? NASA sent up a repair mission, and they found out that the circuits were fused. They replaced the circuit boards, but all they ever got was about a half-hour of transmission. Then the Congress cut the appropriation, so they never did send another shuttle up, and we don't know what happened.''

"You're saying that the aliens zapped the telescope? What would they do that for?"

"Well, who knows?"

"Listen, what I want to know," said Senator Feeley, "is how we're going to pay for this project."

"Worldwide, I see two ways to go about it. One, we divide the cost of construction plus a reasonable rate of return by the number of people in the world, less the number of people who can't pay anything because they haven't got anything. Okay, that probably works out to something like a thousand dollars a head, and we collect that through subscriptions, and use it to amortize the IDA loans. Two, we levy funds directly from national governments, in proportion to their populations, and let them collect from individuals. The second way has less headaches."

"Ron, why not just finance the whole thing from capital reserves of national governments? They aren't going to have any use for the money after we all get in the Cube."

"That's not necessarily so, and it would be inflationary. I can't recommend any method that isn't fiscally sound."

"Are you saying that the money we have now is still going to be worth something when we get to the other planet?"

"Absolutely. You don't understand economics, Eleanor."

"I'm afraid you're right," said Senator Eleanor Feeley.

After lunch the interrogation resumed.

"Mr. Stone," said Senator Arbuthnot, "you say the aliens told you the earth is going to be destroyed?"

"That's right, Senator."

"Well, did they tell you how that's going to happen? I mean, is it going to be a meteor, or what?"

"They didn't say, Senator."

"Well, isn't that a little unsatisfactory?"

"I think so, but that's all they told me."

"Mr. Stone, is it ruled out that the aliens are planning to destroy the earth themselves?"

"No, sir, I can't rule that out. They might do it."

"They might?"

"Yes, sir. All they told me is that the earth is going to be destroyed in about twelve years. They didn't say if they were going to do it or what. Maybe we're going to do it ourselves. From what I've seen since I came back, that don't seem too far fetched."

"You think we're going to destroy the earth ourselves?"

"It seems like we've been trying to."

"All right. Let's say the Earth is going to be destroyed, whether we do it or the aliens do it. Why should we get in that box?"

"So they can take us to another planet."

"But you don't know they're going to do that?"

"No, sir."

"They might just leave us in the box?"

"They might, but I don't know why they would."

"Well, you don't know why they'd do anything, do you?"

"No, sir, I don't."

"Let's just suppose, Mr. Stone, that it's true about the other planet. And the aliens are going to take us there, and then what? Are they going to just tum over a brand-new planet? Are there creatures living there already? What happens to them?"

"I don't know the answers, Senator."

"I know you don't, and that's what worries me. Now another scenario. These aliens are far superior to us scientifically, are they not?"

"Yes, sir."

"And they might regard us, quite rightly, as inferior beings?"

"I don't know about inferior. "

"Well, if they're superior to us, we have to be inferior to them, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess so, if you put it that way."

"All right. Then how do we know they're not going to put us in a zoo? Would you want that for yourself and your descendants? If you knew that was going to happen, wouldn't you rather stay here and die proudly with your planet?"

"Senator, I guess the answer is that we're taking a chance when we get in that box. But it's the only chance we've got."

The senator looked at his memopad. "Now, Mr. Stone, according to what you tell us, there are going to be no corridors, no doorways, no means of ingress or egress in this box. We're just going to be packed in there like sardines in a can."

"Yes, sir, but we'll be in suspended animation, so it won't matter. "

"All right. Then the aliens come and take the whole box to another planet. They have to take the box apart to get at us, isn't that right? They can take off the top layer, let's say, and remove however many people are in that layer. Or they can remove a few at a time as they happen to need them. What if they think of us as food, Mr. Stone?"

The chairman rapped his gavel. "These are unsavory speculations, Senator. We can imagine anything our minds are capable of, but Mr. Stone has already told us he doesn't know the answers to any of these questions, and I for one think it is uncharitable to ascribe sinister motives to these alien creatures who have come to save us from disaster."

"I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman."

When the long day was over, Givens took Stone up to Senator Arbuthnot's office to meet him.

"Senator," Stone said, "I want you to know there's no hard feelings about the questions you were asking me today. I know you're just trying to do your job."

"Well, that's very kind of you, Mr. Stone." They shook hands. "As far as that goes, I think you're just trying to do your job, Mr. Stone, or can I call you Ed? I really admire you for what you're doing, Ed, and I realize you're trying to save the human race from disaster. To tell you the truth," he said uncertainly, "I don't know what got into me today. I must have been tired from my trip. And when we reconvene, I'm going to apologize to you publicly."

"Gee, that's swell, Senator, but you don't have to do that."

"Call me Ralph. Yes, I do have to do it, and I'm going to." He grinned, and they shook hands again. "You keep on doing your job, Ed, and I'll do mine."